Over the county border - Orcop Church

 I decided to have a scoot into Herefordshire yesterday.  Only very rarely do I go to an auction these days.  I have knocked the little Monday one on the head as just nothing in it of interest - pretty dire tbh. Plus it doesn't start until 3 p.m. and I don't enjoy driving home in the dark once the evenings have properly drawn in.  Yesterday's auction was house clearance, not an exciting one, but I thought I would check it out to see if it was a good outlet for anything I needed to pass on in the future.  They do get good house clearance stuff too, and had their star sales on a wall in the hall as you go in.  One was clearly a "sleeper" until it was picked up on line.  A carved bust of a woman, beautifully executed, sold for . . . wait for it . . . £52,000!  Gosh, I bet the vendor was delighted!  It was good to see what things were making - though the Arts & Crafts carved stand I loved sold very strongly, for several hundred.  The two Art Deco vases with Swallows on looked good on line, but in the flesh the decoration was chalky and had rubbed off in places.  There was a spinning wheel but that too, failed in the flesh as it was poorly made.  

I arrived far too early, and after sitting for half an hour, decided to go and bother Orcop Church, which Keith and I had once checked out when house hunting in the area.  Driving along, I passed the sign for Kilpeck (fabulous church, which I've written about before), and Garway Hill - Garway has a Knight's Templar church which Keith and I visited when we got here.

St John the Baptist, Orcop

Next door is a lovely house, with a quiet outlook . . .

Keith and I had been interested by the preaching cross, which has a stoop built in for the Priest to use.

I believe this is the church of St John the Baptist, although Pevsner calls it St Mary's . . .

The church has 12th C roots, but - like SO many - had reached such a stage of disrepair by Victorian times, that it had a makeover.  The 16th C bell tower (a ring of 5 bells) has a truncated pyramid roof, and internally, very big scissor braces which I noted but failed to photograph . . .

I think, looking at the pews to the right, there is a slight subsidence problem . . .

The font would appear to have been replaced in the Victorian upgrade.  I thought the discarded basket on the top gave it a homely feel.  I had a lovely chat with Margaret, the Church warden, who said that the congregation was down to just a few - elderly - parishioners now, although the funeral of a local estate agent recently had 400 mourners, so that must have had them packed inside the church and out and hanging from the rafters!

A parishioner had gone to the trouble of sewing a nice patchwork altar front.  The stained glass window at the top was made to celebrate the Millennium, on the theme of Light.

T Nicholson was responsible for the 1860 revamp, and this pulpit would date from that time.

As would the King and Queen terminal carvings.

This is the real thing though - a Medieval carving - perhaps a Corbel? Or is this the "top of a Norman pillar piscina" that Pevsner mentions?

Pierced heart on the vaulted roof .

The bell tower, internally.

This is known as the Poet's Church, as poet Francis Horovitz is buried here.  I looked for his gravestone at the back of the church, but couldn't find an obvious candidate, though I did note a strange stone with a metal cross stuck in the side of it.  Apparently that was it.

Then it was back to the auction for a bit.